Rocky Trails Marathon

The day didn't get off to a good start, my alarm going off at 3:30AM after getting to bed around 2AM. Not the way you want to begin a marathon day. But soon Melissa arrived and we were on our way to Inks Lake State Park for the Rocky Trails marathon.

They did have coffee at the start line, which was a good sign. Plus we got an awesome t-shirt, one without any ads on it, very rare these days. Even had homemade rice krispy treats, the day was definitely improving.

Race began with 43 runners. It was basically a three loop race around the park. Great trail! Kind of like a mix between Bull Creek park and Bandera. Hills certainly weren't as difficult as Bandera, but there was some super technical rock running. Another fun section was climbing up the rock, a huge dome you had to run up and over. From descriptions I think it's similiar to Enchanted Rock, though I've never been to ER. Lots of aid stations, including "Shan's Irish Pub," one of the cooler aid stations I've ever seen. And yes, on my last loop, I did stop to have a bottle of Guinness. Next year Shan promised she'd have an Irish Car Bomb waiting for me.

Started conservatively. Was in about 8th place after one lap. Even had two females in front of me, both friends of mine. I picked it up on the second lap and moved up steadily. Finally got Melissa and Meredith behind me, they woulda ragged me for a while had they beaten me. Came around the second time in 5th place.

By this time things were starting to heat up. It was 85 degrees in Burnet, and the sun sure was heating up those rocks. I was hurting pretty bad on that last lap, but I was able to hold things together enough to pass two more runners. The Guinness really helped things and I held a pretty good pace over the last three or so miles. Finished up in 3rd place, with a time of 4:04:07. I'm pretty happy with the effort, and it wins me a case of beer from Emily. Oh, ended up winning another six pack this weekend, off Slummy, sorry we had to beat up on your Pack like that, SB.

Kudos goes out to Melissa for her first marathon win. I was afraid I'd hafta give a ride home to a gal who got a bigger trophy than me, but they ended up being the same size.

Next up is the Warda Cardiac Run and Relay. I'm doing the 44 mile run, but they also have a 22 mile run and a two or four person relay. I'll be going out the night before to camp, Bluff Creek is a pretty cool place (it's less than four miles from where Slut's campout was). Some of you budding marathoners out there might wanna look into doing this, I saw the finishers awards and they're worth having.